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Shadow Complex Review

We just posted a review of what could possibly be the retail game of the year, Batman, but now a review of the Xbox Live Arcade game of the year contender Shadow Complex? Amazing back to back reviews of potential games of the year.

Lets get to it. We will start with the graphics. This game will rival any full retail game when it comes to visuals. Shadow Complex is running on the Unreal Engine 3 and you can tell as soon as you load the game. Typically side scrolling games, which Shadow Complex definitely is, scrimp on the graphics. Not here, in this maze of rooms, full 3D sensations will get you to try and navigate your character up. No matter how many times you try, he will just not walk back to that kick ass looking robot, or brightly lit office. You can only move side to side. This game will win awards for its graphics. Moving side to side leads to the controls.

The controls are tight and responsive. Which is exactly what you need to navigate the tricky passages of the subterranean lair. Your character does level up throughout the campaign, which should make RPG players happy. No, you do not get to specifically level up attributes, but instead everything levels at the same time as you discover them. You can jump, and later in the game double jump. Running will also be upgraded to what can only be describes as screaming fast. You will run so fast, that Jesus will look twice. Yes you can run over water in Shadow Complex. As you progress your character will ultimately be able to go anywhere you wish, if your talented enough with the sticks. Slightly related to controls are the guns. Your main weapon will also be upgraded as you progress through the game. That is until you have a bad ass weapon capable of taking down the screen filling bosses. In the beginning all you have is a flashlight. The weapon you end up with is significantly more serious. That is if you devote the time to search down every upgrade hidden within the map.

The story line is loosely based upon a story penned by Mormon Sci-fi writer Orson Scott Card. The story is interesting and helps progress the game from beginning to end. If you chose to play through a second time in an attempt to locate every powerup, you can skip through the cut scenes. What helps the story is excellent voice over work, done by Nolan North, mostly known for his work in the Uncharted series. The over the top action of this game, just keeps you playing. The campaign will take a solid 6-8 hours to play through. Expect to double that time, if you chose to hunt down all those powerups. You will want to upgrade your health, armor, stamina, and weapon if you expect to take down the final boss. There are separate challenges that will take you another 2-4 hours to complete. With 4 different difficulty settings, you can also tailor the game to your playing style.

A single play through should yield you 170 of the 200 available G's. The achievements are perfect for this type of game. They are simple, and easily obtained without even knowing your working towards them. For the accumulation achievements, 100 screamers for example, are tracked both in the menu screen, and during game play with simple pop ups. This also helps drive you to keep exploring the map and finding hidden areas. There are a bunch of them, and if you are into 100% completion, this game will make you work for it.

Map borrowed from our friends at MTV Multiplayer.

If you tend to like side scrolling games of past system, think Metroid or Contra, you will love this game. With a price tag of $15, there is no reason not to buy this game. It was released just a few weeks ago, during Xbox's summer of fun. But do not think the game developers over at Chair have left this game behind. DLC is on the way!! While they are very hush, hush about what type of DLC it could be, I am very excited that they are still building upon this solid foundation.

Review by the numbers:

Graphics 10 out of 10

Controls 8 out of 10

Story 8 out of 10

Value for your money 10 out of 10

Achievement ease 9 out of 10

Overall 8.9 out of 10

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Achievements: 6/10
There are two ways that you can go about playing Batman and your decision will determine how successful you will be in unlocking the achievements. If you were to quickly play through the storyline you are inline to get about 400 G’s. However, there are 240 of Riddler’s Challenges that you will be given the option of solving. There are achievements associated with the challenges and if you are able to solve different percentages of them you will unlock achievements. Aside from the story Batman has combat challenges, such as beating a number of asylum inmates while scoring a predetermined amount of points. These challenges will earn a minimal amount of G’s depending on how successful you are.

Review: 9/10
Can I say game of the year? Alright, Batman: Arkham Asylum was released in August of 2009, which has been a relatively weak year for Xbox 360 releases (feel free to bash or agree with my opinion), so I don’t feel that my comment is outlandish. Even during a year of highly touted releases Batman would still be included in a ‘best of’ list. There are just too many positives in the game for it not to be considered a top game of 2009.

The story starts out with Batman personally escorting the Joker to Arkham Asylum. As always Joker is overly confident and Batman questions the ease in which Joker was apprehended. We learn before any real game play that Joker had an ace up his sleeve and quickly switches his role as the inmate to the warden. As a detective Batman has to figure out how Joker was able to escape, how to recapture him and ultimately what is the purpose of his scheme. Along the way we run into other super villains like Bain, Scarecrow, Killer Croc and Poison Ivy among others. It must have been a quiet time in Gotham with all these villains locked up.

The background and graphics looked amazing! The entire game is contained in Arkham Asylum, which is located on a small island, so the various buildings on the island house the main missions. The gothic architecture of the buildings is seen in great detail and while walking the halls within the buildings colors just pop catching your eye. Even small details made a lasting impression on me. For example, as the game went on Batman’s suit became more tattered or he grew a five o’clock shadow.

By now I imagine you are tired of hearing about the scenery and story and want to know about the actual game. Understandably, it is a game after all and it was glorious! Seriously, there was a good mix of action. While moving through the different levels you will come across different groups of inmates that you will have to battle. If the inmates are not armed you can rush in and just beat the snot out of them. In some ways this type of combat could be considered button mashing, but if you slow down and hit the buttons in a rhythm you are able to generate combat chains, making the fights more enjoyable and in the process unlock a couple achievements.

If the inmates are armed you will not be able to rush in and just fight. Let’s be real; Batman does wear armor, but it is not invulnerable. Combat with armed inmates was more of a challenge, but it was what I looked forward to, because you were able to use all of Batman’s wonderful toys. You had to take the inmates down while being stealthy, so you had to hide in the ceiling on gargoyles, in the air vents, or even just around corners to take down each inmate individually, since normal combat would make too much noise drawing the attention of the others. You could stun the inmates with your bat-a-rang, string them up with the grapple hook and even set a trap with explosive gel. I waited until I beat the story to participate in the combat challenges, but in hindsight I should have played them earlier to learn moves that I didn’t know even existed.

Even the Riddler challenges had variety to them with some of them being as simple as finding a question mark statue, or evening solving actual riddles related to Batman characters. There was a detective mode that allowed Batman to see structural weaknesses in the walls and take snap snots, which aided in solving the riddles. While in the detective mode you could easily see if the inmates were armed or not, so you knew how to approach the battle. There was one other type of Riddler challenge that I will not go into detail about; once I figured it out it was such an ‘eureka’ moment that I hope others are able to experience.

With the different combat techniques I never got a feeling of monotony during game play and to incorporate the Riddler’s challenges there was a constant mix of things I could do. Each battle and Riddler challenge completed earned Batman some experience points, which would be used to unlock new skills or attributes like better armor, an additional bat-a-rang, etc. If the combat vs. stealth is not enough of a difference there were a few encounters with the Scarecrow that will surely leave an impression. I can’t believe how scary the Scarecrow was in the game!

There was so much done right in Batman: Arkham Asylum that I really don’t have much to complain about; great story, great look and great controls. The encounter with Killer Croc was rather anti-climatic, but it by no means took anything away from the game. If you plan on attacking the game paying no heed to Riddler’s challenges then you should be able to beat Arkham Asylum within a rental period. However, if the Riddler & combat challenges sound interesting, purchasing Batman new or used is well worth the investment, especially with reports of free downloadable content coming soon.

Avatar Golf Review

Wanted to get the word out quick about this new Indie game. Just released on Saturday, Sept. 5th, Avatar Golf is a easy to play golf game. Simple controls allow anyone to play this game. Your online Avatar is your golfer of choice. You can edit the color, but not the attributes of the player. Think Tiger Woods, but your the main golfer. I played 2 rounds and it was very fun. You can customize the weather, time of day, and some physics. I don't want to spoil it for you. For the required 400 Microsoft Points, you get a local multiplayer mode, a online multiplayer mode, and a course editor. I have yet to check that feature out. So you get your money's worth on this title. The graphics are awesome, and surprising for the price. The game does have some Avatar expressions that are pretty standard. Overall there are 6 courses with 18 holes each. 8 player online capabilities.

So what is the catch? OK, no achievements. Take a deep breath. You will get no G's for playing this game. What the game does offer is unlockable "titles". They are titles you can assign to your avatar. They pop up just like achievements. The only other negative I thought was the music. Very repetitive and it got on my nerves by the third hole. However, they do have a custom music feature and you can stream music from your hard drive or network connected computer. That is a pretty awesome feature. Go download this game now, so I will have someone to play online.

Thanks for reading.

Rock Band Unwrapped

Ever wanted to know what the inside of a wireless Harmonix Rock Band 2 fender stratocaster guitar looked like? Yeah me to, so when I got my hands on a broken one, I went to work. I was surprised to find that all you needed was a simple Phillips head screw driver. Below in order is what I found. Enjoy.

I decided to attack the front plate first.

I quickly discovered a small dilemma. The tiny cone shaped feedback controller was holding the face plate on the front of the guitar. I decided to turn my attention to the back of the guitar.

Only 14 screws held the guitar together. After removing those screws, you were forced to pull a few glued wires for the inside of the case. At this point the guitar could still be put back together and used. If it actually worked.

And the back view.

After the main case was dismantled, I turned my attention to what would be the most difficult part to dissect. The long neck of the guitar had only 6 visible screws to simple undo.
Hidden in the head of the neck was this little sheet metal connector. It provided a very sturdy support system. At this point, I still believe I could put the guitar back together.
After I popped that sucker out, the neck still wouldn't come apart. Something was keeping it together and there was very little give in the plastic.
In the picture below you can see a broken screw. It was hidden under the blue or red neck key. I probably should have looked, but I finally had a point of no return. I was now obligated to finish the dismantling of the guitar. At this point the guitar is broken and can not be put back together.

Here is an before shot of the remaining wires and gizmo's still attached to the plastic.

A few more twists of the screwdriver and presto. A empty case.
Here are the final pictures of the process. A pretty big mess.

A final overall view of the remaining plastic. All screws will be recycled. Plastics will be disposed of properly.

Special thanks to AlmostFamous24 for providing the guitar. Stay tuned for an upcoming sequel......20 Gig hard drive unwrapped?

Thanks for reading.

Viking: Battle for Asgard

Viking: Battle for Asgard

Rating: 6/10

Achievements: 9/10
If you are looking to boost your gamerscore I would suggest throwing Viking: Battle for Asgard in the Xbox. In the first three hours you should be able to earn approximately 350 G’s. Going forward the achievement’s are unlocked at a slower pace, but still come quickly enough. The majority of the achievements are unlocked simply by playing through the story. If you complete the story on the normal difficulty go back and complete it again on hard for a few more G’s.

Review:
What a mindless game and that’s no knock on Viking as this is a hack & slash title in its purest form. The story is serviceable enough to keep you interested and willing to pay attention to the cut scenes. We are introduced to the game with an army of demon warriors, led by the Goddess of Death Hel, attacking the Viking territory of Asgard. We initially see our main character, Skarin, crawl from the battlefield with fatal wounds, but is later resurrected by the Goddess of Light Freya, to free the Viking homeland and build an army large enough to take on Hel herself.There are three land masses that are unlocked as the story progresses, but all of the quests are basically the same. Free the lumber mill and rescue the prisoners. Repeat at the farm and the distillery, etc. There are a couple of side quests inserted along the way to lighten the monotony, but it is all pretty much the same for each region. Interesting enough for a game where you basically hack and slash all the enemies to death there are a couple of missions that stealth is stressed. I originally tried the stealth route, but bumbling Skarin always blew his cover, so I ended up just killing everybody in sight. I’m not going to lie; it was fun.

So now that we have the story down let’s get into the actual game play. The graphics are decent, but nothing special. However, when battling an enemy there is a finishing move that slows the action down and we see the bloodshed more clearly. During battle you can hit A for a weak quick attack, X for a strong slow attack. Each stage has a Battle Arena where you can unlock combination attacks; go there early an often. You can also press the Y button to dodge an attack, but you will most likely only need to take evasive action when fighting a Demon Champion or Giant, which is surprisingly rare. Oh, and that finishing move that I mentioned earlier…it’s the X button. Don’t worry; the controls aren’t as confusing as they sound. I hope you are picking up on the sarcasm. I almost forgot about the charged attack that can be used once you upgrade your sword. I forgot, because this option could have been much more exciting to use since it had some flaws. You have the choice between upgrading your sword by infusing it with lighting, fire & ice powers. As you massacre demon warriors some will leave red orbs that you can collect and charge a special attack meter. Once the desired amount of orbs have been collected the special attack can be initiated by hitting the right bumper (RB) and then either X, Y, or B. Again, real complicated, but here is where the special attack came up short. Once the special attack is initiated you can not turn it off until your attack meter runs dry even if all the enemies are now nothing but discarded limbs. Also, it takes longer to charge the meter than it should. My advice is to save the special attack until the final battle on each stage and once initiated your special attack will also power up your allies in battle as well. It was enjoyable & beneficial to use, but just couldn't be used enough.

The music is about as exciting as the controls, so you may want to turn on some background noise. Maybe a stereo, baseball game, or even a washer & dryer would work out well. Who says people who play video games aren’t productive? There were portions of Viking where I was roaming the countryside with no music at all and the sound effects of Skarin thumping through the grassy plains made me want to grab a pint of the delicious mead that Skarin would find while traversing the Viking lands. Oh wait; I wouldn’t know how the mead tasted, because our hero never got to drink any of it. We would find the stuff and then sell it to the local inn, but whenever we wanted some the Inn Keeper was conveniently sold out. Isn’t that a kick in the stones…

Even though the game did not require much brain power or have complex & exciting controls I still enjoyed myself. After I learned enough combination moves I even started talking trash to some of the demon warriors as I decapitated them, or chopped both their arms off. That may say something about me, but I am not going to dwell on it. Viking is a fairly short game, but it took me a bit longer than a rental period to beat the game, but what’s a dollar restocking fee for returning it late anyway? I also have seen this game at a local retailer that has a target for marketing purposes (figure it out) priced at $29.99. Both options are a fair price and worth checking out.

Blue Dragon

Blue Dragon

Rating: 6/10 (plus or minus 1…I’ll explain)

Achievements: 1/10
Why did I spend so much time on a measly 165 gamerpoints? You read that correctly, only 165 G’s were unlocked during my 50+ hours of game play. There is no rhyme or reason for what is considered an achievement in Blue Dragon. There are many bosses that you will encounter on your long journey, but no achievements will be gained by defeating the bosses, including the final boss. I am getting frustrated just thinking about the fact that I didn’t get any G’s for completing the game. However, I did earn 30 G’s for killing the rare Golden Poo Snake…that’s right Poo…I’ll explain. Let’s just move on; if you’re looking for achievements, don’t play this game.

Review:
I always seem to navigate towards RPG’s, whether it’s a turn based title such as Blue Dragon & Lost Odyssey, or what I guess are being called American RPG’s like Fallout 3 & Mass Effect. Blue Dragon was recommended to me (see previous post: Do You Have a Gamestop Story, 03/16/09), so I thought I would give it a shot.

If you are not familiar with the turn based RPG genre you may already be confused by what you are reading. These types of games are very technical and you have to be very diligent in managing your party. Usually there is a group of people who stay with the main character and everybody has a specific role, such as providing white magic for healing, black magic for powerful attacks and others who don’t utilize much magic, but have very powerful melee attacks. Each character needs to be equipped with different accessories that you find throughout the game, which should increase some aspect of their role like attack, magic, defense, etc. The battles may also take a little while to get used to, since each character attacks or heals in a designated order. This is a far departure from a hack & slash title where you just press a button and hope for the best; very numbers oriented.

This quick explanation was given, because if the above description sounds interesting to a person who has never played a turn based RPG then this game may be a good title to get introduced to the genre. Blue Dragon introduced new areas & controls slowly, giving a detailed description. At no point did I ever feel overwhelmed with the controls or menu options. The one item that was not explained very well was the different skill types each character could develop. I realized too late that the ‘generalist’ skill was the most powerful and versatile; suggest having the character Maromaru designated as the Generalist.

I have to believe that the developers created Blue Dragon with the intention of luring a new audience to RPG’s with the detailed tutorials. However, the story was very childish and would appeal to an audience who would be too young to play this type of game. An enemy that is encountered many times throughout the game is a Poo Snake, which is basically a snake that looks like a pile of poo. Besides the fecal matter the majority of the enemies fought throughout the game look like something you would see in a Japanese version of Toy Story, consisting of many windup robots. I guess the maturity of the story & its characters should have been expected as the main character is a young boy accompanied by his friends who are all trying to harness a magical power and in doing so the kids take on Nene, a powerful sorcerer who is trying to rule the world with ancient magical robots. Really...a robot that looks like a tin soldier? Come on…now Mega Maid, that was a real evil machine.

Completing the main story is fairly easy and straightforward, if you are willing to spend the time on it, but there are a few optional side quests, which have bosses of their own. Besides the terrible story the optional bosses frustrated me the most. It’s understood that these bosses are optional, but there is no reason that any enemy in a game should be more powerful than the final boss. In my saved game I beat the final boss with my main character at a level 80 out of a possible 99 levels and I am still not able to beat any of the five optional dragons that are hidden throughout the game. This set of dragons really doesn’t even have a purpose in the game and if they do it’s so insignificant that I have already forgotten. That may seem strange with the name being Blue Dragon.

Anyway, my original rating of this game was a 6, plus or minus 1. If you are a young child who has a desire to get into RPG’s this game & story may be perfect for you. However, if your reading this than you are probably too old for the game. Either way you look at it you should be able to find this game new or used for $10.00 – 20.00, so you will surely get your money worth with the amount of time needed to complete it.